


Paper Mache Airplane

by AraniWrites



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 04:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10268237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AraniWrites/pseuds/AraniWrites
Summary: "...They whooped and hollered together as they finally got to take the Tempest out for a real test, two kindred spirits who raced through space and nearly crashed into the Moon in the process."





	

**Author's Note:**

> I am in way too deep. I can't escape this ship. Help.

For a long time, the ship had been completely silent. No Engineers running around, no Alliance officials or wide-eyed apprentices. Every door in the ship was open, and there were no furnishings installed yet; he could hear any little thump or chime from anywhere on board, and all was quiet for the first time. Just him on the bridge, checking over the controls in his Pilot’s seat.

He heard the footsteps from his seat, walking up the ramp and into the cargo hold. “Kallo?!”

“Pilot’s seat!” He called back, their voices echoing throughout the Tempest.

He could hear her as she approached the Bridge, and turned his seat to greet her with a smile. Sara walked in with raised brows and a rather amused smile pulling at her lips.

“Hey. The ship is actually silent?”

Kallo shrugged, “I believe you humans say, ‘Once in a blue moon’?”

“Hey, you’re learning!” Kallo rolled his eyes at her and resumed his work checking the Tempest’s systems. “So why’d you call me? It’s the middle of the night.”

“You weren’t sleeping.”

“Of course I wasn’t, but what’s the emergency?”

“No emergency, just needed to get you here.” Kallo grinned, “I finally got the go-ahead to take the Tempest for a fast-test. Get these engines running as hard as they can and see if it can actually handle the speed.” 

“Really?” Sara leaned into the back of his chair, reading over his shoulder. “It should hold together.”

“That’s what our calculations said. Theoretically, it should only take one person to fly the Tempest but I figured you deserved to be up here for her first real flight.”

Sara grinned wide at him, “Two years of work is finally paying off.”

“Assuming it works, of course.”

“I checked those calculations personally, she’ll work.”

They would both admit to being a little nervous; the first real test on the Tempest, a ship they’d spent two years of their lives building from the ground up. So many sleepless nights and restless weekends spent trying to craft the best scout ship they possible could. Both were thinking about it; even Kallo had to pause in his work just to take in the moment.

Sara squeezed his shoulder, and he patted the back of her hand in turn. With a deep breath, he closed up the ramp and doors; the Tempest was sealed and fueled up.

“Alright.” He breathed, pulling up the holographic controls. “Lets fly, shall we?”

“Please do.”

Kallo began to prime the engines. Moments later, a voice came in over the coms; “Testing, testing! Calling the paper mache airplane.” It was Arnold, the flight officer on duty; he’d had lunch with them a few times and had a lot of good jokes up his sleeves. It was more than likely that he was the only one on duty at this time.

“Arnie, you’re about to eat those words.” Kallo told him, “This ship’s about to be one of the fastest in the fleet.”

“We only used a little glue, honest!” Sara laughed.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” He replied, laughing himself. “Good luck out there you two. See the sights for me! You’re cleared to leave the hangar bay.”

“Thanks Arnie.”

“See you on the flip side!”

Kallo lifted the Tempest from the ground and pulled out of the hangar bay, up and into space. Earth was clearly visible before Kallo turned, “We’ll make a system rotation or two.”

The Drive Core powered on completely as Kallo set their nav points. Then they were on their way, away from Earth and the moon, towards Mars. He started the ship slow at first, making sure the Drive Core was operating perfectly before going faster. Once they passed Mars and the Asteroid belt, there was no stopping them.

Kallo engaged the FTL drives. Sara still gripped his shoulder as they waited, watching as the stars around them turned to a blue vortex-like blur. They watched as their speed increased, faster and faster, until they were at their max speed. They held their breath at that; and the Tempest flew straight, silent and maintained its speed perfectly.

As they began to realize that, Sara began to grin from ear to ear as Kallo watched with a noticeable glimmer in his eye. “It’s working.” She shook his shoulders, beginning to bounce on her toes. “It’s working Kallo, _it’s working!_ ”

“We did it.” He breathed, letting out a stunned laugh. “I can’t believe it!”

Sara moved from behind his chair to the Pathfinder’s navigational terminal. The terminal itself hadn’t yet been completed, but she pressed herself up to the glass to stare out at the vortex. For a brief moment, Kallo tried to picture her father standing in that spot, over 600 years from that moment, in Andromeda.

“It’s amazing.” Sara voiced as if she had been reading his thoughts.

A few minutes of perfect flight went by, and the two thought they were in the clear. As they began approaching Saturn, Kallo prepared to slow the Tempest down again.

Suddenly, a strange noise emanated through the ship. The lights flickered and red warnings began to flash.

“Power surge.” They both said in unison, getting straight to work. Kallo tried to cool the Drive Core while Sara went to the Science Officer’s station, attempting to reroute critical power systems.

“You’ll have an easier time down in engineering!”

Sara slammed her fist down onto the console, “No time!” She jumped up and went to the wall behind Kallo’s chair. Using her limited biotics she tore a large panel off the wall, exposing hundreds or wires and cables.

As she began to fiddle with and rearrange them, the ship slowed enough for them to see but not enough to stop. And they were rapidly approaching the asteroid belt. “We’re going too fast!” Kallo regained manual control of the ship, “Evasive maneuvers, hang on!”

The Tempest began to flip in all directions as Kallo evaded the mass amount of Asteroids in the belt. Sara hung onto the wall and worked on the wires whenever she could keep her footing. 

“I can’t reroute the power until we’re out of the belt!”

“I’m working on it!”

It took a few minutes, and Sara nearly flew across the room more than once, but they eventually made it out of the belt. “Now, do it now!”

Sara fiddled with the wires again, beginning to fully tear out some of them. “I have to shut down your controls to reroute!”

Kallo gasped then, “Sara! The Moon!” They were headed straight for it. 

“I know I know!” For a few tense moments they barreled full speed out of control towards the Moon. 

“ _SARA!_ ”

“Almost!”

Kallo could hardly breathe as the Moon got even closer. Finally, Sara reached back and tore out a long blue wire from the wall. The lights went out, but the pilot’s controls came right back to life. “Now, now!”

Kallo pulled up hard on the Tempest. The ship steered up with it, following the curvature of the Moon, just barely missing its surface. This time Sara was thrown across the room, letting out a yelp as she hit the opposite wall. Kallo pulled the Tempest away from the Moon and from Earth, finally cutting power to the Engines until they stopped dead in space. All was silent again.

The two were in a stunned state of shock, barely breathing. Sara was sprawled out on the floor staring out the window, while Kallo leaned back in his seat and stared as she was, only the light of the Sun illuminating the bridge.

After a few breathless moments, Sara began to laugh. It built until she was crying from laughing so hard, making no effort to pull herself up off the floor. Soon Kallo joined her, and both we stuck in hysterical choked laughs that lasted for longer than either would ever admit.

“Oh God!” Sara cried, trying to breathe through her laughter. “Th-the ship can be flown by just one person huh?”

Kallo tried to calm himself, wiping the tears from his eyes and standing on shaking legs. “I did say ‘theoretically’, if you recall.”

Kallo went to her and held out his hand, pulling Sara up off the floor. The two hugged each other, shaking from the rush of adrenaline and feeling nothing but pure joy and relief. “It did work.”

“The surge is easy enough to fix.” Sara agreed, letting him go with a lopsided grin. “How about we just keep this incident to ourselves?”

“Absolutely.” Kallo shook his head, “No one needs to know about this.”

“Let's bring the ship in.”

And even 600 years later, neither ever brought up the incident again. Once in awhile they would glance at the one replaced panel behind Kallo’s chair and laugh a little, and despite multiple attempts none of the crew ever learned why.


End file.
